The Traitor's Daughter (23 page)

Hugh had pulled her tight against him, the ferocity of
the action almost winding her. “No, I am not sure, but Edmund will die for you,
I am sure of that.” He sounded bitter and hurt.

“I do not want him to die for me, or you. I do not want
anyone to die for me.” She tried to gather her thoughts. “I want you to be
completely well before we arrive at Liss.”

“You are the best judge of that and I will bow to
whatever decision you come to.” She sighed, wishing that he had been this
sensible yesterday, rather than insisting that they leave today.

“You were prepared to kill Edmund?” she had not intended
to ask the question, but it came out anyway.

“He was going to touch you,” Hugh said, simply.

“There was nothing behind it. You know that. He thought
it would be better for you if I rode with him.”

“He was wrong.”

“He thought you were not strong enough to bear someone
else,” she persisted.

“I can bear anything, as long as you are with me.”

“Hugh, you know that I cannot. When we get to Liss I
will be married to your father.”

“Come with me. There are places where we can go. He will
not find us.” Why was he doing this again? She was weary of arguing with him.
Was this the real reason Edmund had wanted her to ride with him, so that Hugh
would not have the chance to wear her down while they were riding?

“I will know that I am his wife. I cannot go with you.
Please. I am promised to him. I cannot be a liar. I am betrothed to him. I
cannot be released unless he releases me.” She doubted her husband would
release her. A man who had left his dying son leaving orders for his bride to
be brought to him was not a man who was likely to let that bride go.

“He has already betrayed you. Your marriage vows are
meaningless.”

“They mean a great deal to me. My brother promised me to
your father. I spoke my betrothal vows as a grown woman in my right mind. It
matters not what manner of man he is. I have promised myself to him.”

And that was the crux of the matter. It did not matter
what her brother had promised. He was dead and could not be gainsaid. She had
spoken her betrothal vows of her own free will, convinced that they would help
her family remove themselves from the cloud of treachery.

She felt Hugh slump against her. “My lord?”

“I am well.” He straightened behind her.

“Edmund?” She raised her voice to get his attention.

Edmund brought his horse up beside them. “My lady?”

“When can we stop?”

“We can go on until darkness falls,” said Hugh, loudly.

“Let us stop at the next inn,” Alais contradicted him.

“Very well, my lady.”

“I am stronger than that,” hissed Hugh in her ear.

“I know, my lord,” she responded, coldly, “but I need
you to be able to fight for me when we arrive at Liss. That means that you must
rest before you think you need it and sleep longer than you want.”

“I can fight…”

“No,” she interrupted him, “you cannot. If Edmund had
decided to fight you this morning, you would have lost. You must be strong for
me, or we will all die.” She was certain now that this was true. It was not
just for his own sake that Hugh pressed her to go away with him; he feared for
her life if he took her to  his father.

As the morning wore on, Hugh leaned against her more and
more, until eventually he fell asleep. Alais realised what was happening in
time to take the reigns and guide the horse. Hugh’s weight was heavy against
her back and his head rested on her shoulder. They had badly misjudged his
recovery. They would have to stay at the inn for a few days, until she was sure
that he could continue the journey.

Hugh awoke shortly before they arrived at the inn. Alais
was relived. It would be better if Hugh could convince the innkeeper that he
was capable of anything. Hugh and Edmund went inside to arrange for a room
while Alais took the horses to the stables. When she joined them, Hugh was
sitting on the bed removing his tunic. “We thought you would want to see his
wound before he got into bed,” Edmund explained.

Hugh said nothing. Once again his pale skin was
glistening with sweat. He must have been in even more pain than she had
realised. She examined his wound, but there seemed to be no problem with it.
She looked quickly at the bruising on his chest where Edmund had hit him in
case it had made him ill again. No, it was just the physical effort of the
morning that had brought him so low.

“There is nothing wrong that rest will not cure,” she
smiled as she knelt down to help Hugh off with his boots. Hugh pulled his feet
away, “You do not wait on me, my lady.”

“Very well.” She stood and walked over to the door,
where she stood with Edmund watching Hugh struggle to undress. He did not ask
for help and Edmund did not offer. Alais looked around the room. “Where is my
bed?” she hissed at Edmund.

“There is no other bed,” explained Edmund, in a whisper.
“I am sorry, my lady. This is the only room they have. I thought it better…”

“Yes,” interrupted Alais, “you were right. He could not
have gone further today.”

With an exclamation of disgust, Hugh finally removed a
boot.

“Need my help now?” asked Edmund, lazily.

“No.”

“Good.”

Alais looked at the bed. It was certainly larger than
the bed she had shared with Agnes, but how could she share a bed with Hugh? In
his current state of mind, she did not think he would let her sleep next to
Edmund. Perhaps they could get a palliasse from the innkeeper and she could
sleep on the floor. Perhaps she could sleep on the floor, anyway. Perhaps she
could sleep in the bed tomorrow and sit up tonight.

Alais and Edmund stood by the door until Hugh was asleep
again.

“Where am I to sleep, Edmund?”

“I do not know my lady. I already asked the innkeeper
for a palliasse. He has none.”

Alais sighed. “Then it will be a blanket on the floor.”

“My lady…”

“Would you rather I shared a bed with Hugh? What will
you say then, when we get to Liss?”

“I do not think it will make any difference what I say,
my lady.”

“Neither do I, but I will not do it. And I do not want
you to leave me alone with him.”

Edmund nodded and Alais went to enquire whether or not
the innkeeper had spare blankets.

After three days, Hugh was strong enough for them to set
off again. He swung himself easily into the saddle behind Alais and she knew
that the wait had done him good, although he had driven her and Edmund to
distraction. He had at first tried to give up the bed to her, until she had
grown tired of pointing out that the reason for their stay was so that he could
recover, which he would not do sleeping on the floor. He then continued to try
to persuade her to go away with him. She left the room several times so that he
would not see her tears. On the second day she cried in front of him and,
losing her temper at last, berated him for making her so miserable. That was
the last time he spoke of taking her from his father. Then he started to
grumble at Edmund until Edmund swore that his last day of serving Hugh would be
the day that they arrived at Liss. He would take his family and find another
lord to serve since he was a free man and able to find his own master. Alais
knew that he was serious long before Hugh did and wondered how he would fare
without Edmund to look after him.

She was weary when they set off again. She had slept
badly on the floor and she was angry with Hugh that he had spoiled the short
time that they had had together. Now he pulled her tight against him and she
felt the return of some of his physical power. There was something different
about the way that he held her, but she was asleep against his chest before she
had given it much thought.

They had decided to make their travelling days shorter,
so that Edmund and Hugh could run through their training exercises. Now Alais
watched, not so much to ensure that Hugh did not tire himself, but for the joy
of watching him move. Each day his movements became easier and he was now
lifting his own sword as easily as he had lifted his nephews’ wooden ones. He
had become very thin while they were at Southwark, but now he was filling out
again. When the two men wrestled, she could see his muscles moving smoothly
under his pale skin.

“Well, my lady, do you think I can protect you now?” he
asked when he finally managed to wrestle Edmund to the ground.

“Yes, my lord, I think you can protect me now,” but she
felt no comfort at the prospect.

Hugh agreed with Alais that there was no point in her
changing out of his clothes, before she went into the house. Hugh had already
told his father that she had travelled to court to warn them. He had not
mentioned that she had come disguised as a man, but her shorn hair would soon
tell him. As Liss came into view Hugh pulled Alais even closer against him. He
ignored her gasp of surprise, or perhaps it was pain. Even now, he hoped that
she might change her mind and ask him to turn round, but he knew that she would
not. Edmund had been following behind them most of the day, giving them some
semblance of privacy for their last few hours together. Now he urged his horse
on until he rode beside them.

“My lady?” Hugh was worried that Alais had started to
shiver.

“I am cold.” Her voice was muffled in the cloak that
wrapped them both. Hugh smiled grimly. He knew that Alais thought that he was a
poor liar, but she did not seem to know that she was far worse. He hated his
father for the fear that he had inspired in the young woman he held in front of
him. Hugh had done many things in his life that had been difficult or had
caused him pain, but nothing equalled what it cost him not to abduct Alais and
get her on a boat to take her away to the Low Countries and safety. It was only
her own determination to honour her vows that had stopped him; she would never
forgive him if he made her a liar. His father did not deserve such
steadfastness from a wife. Now he could feel that she was weakening. Perhaps if
he asked her now, she would go with him, but now was too late, they were
entering the courtyard of the manor house.

Servants came rushing out to take the horses. Hugh
helped Alais down and suddenly she was out of his arms. She looked at him, her
eyes full of unshed tears, her face full of longing. She loved him after all.
How stupid he had been. Of course! She had told him that her body belonged to
Sir William; she had not said who had her heart, would not say, but now he
knew. It had been stupid to bring her here. He should have taken her away,
despite her protests. Now he had delivered her up to a man who would abuse her,
or worse.

Before he had time to think they were in the hall. Sir
William was standing at the hearth talking to his steward. Without realising
what he was doing, Hugh looked round the room to see how many men he would have
to fight. The hall was full of armed men milling about. He recognised few of
them. His father had finally taken to heart the threat to his life and hired
mercenaries to protect him. Hugh paused when he saw Stephen talking to one of
their father’s wards. His father had not taken that part of the threat
seriously, then.

“Hugh? I thought you were dead.” His father advanced
towards him. He did not look happy to see his heir in much better health.

“I managed to find a healer prepared to nurse me back to
health.”

Sir William followed his glance towards Alais, but
stopped when he saw Edmund. “Where have you been? You were ordered to bring my
wife here.”

Edmund bowed. “I have brought her.” He indicated Alais
and Sir William’s face darkened.

“This is my wife? Come here girl.”

Alais pulled down the hood of her tunic and stepped
forward without a backward glance. Hugh started an involuntary step forward,
but Edmund trod on his foot and he had to stop.

“So, this is my wife who dresses like a man and rides to
London with lies about my son. Where have you been? You should have been here a
month ago.”

“I was repaying a debt.”

“A debt? How?”

Hugh felt himself grow hot with anger. His father was
capable of much, but he could not watch him make such insinuations about Alais
in front of all these men.

“By saving your son’s life.” Alais spoke quickly and
clearly.

“Whore!” shouted Sir William and struck Alais so hard in
the face that she fell to the ground stunned.

“No!” Now Hugh started forward in earnest, but found a
blade cutting into his throat.

Sir William ignored Alais and took two paces towards his
son. “Do you think I would not realise that you and the traitor’s daughter were
in league together? Do you think I am a fool? She wants revenge and you want
her.”

“We are not in league together,” Hugh ground out through
clenched teeth, trying to gauge the strength of the man holding the blade to
his throat. “It is Stephen who threatens you, not me. I have only to wait for
you to die. Why would I seek to hasten that day?”

“So that you can take my wife, although I am sure that
you have already availed yourself of her.”

“He has not!” shouted Alais as she pulled herself up
from the floor to stand unsteadily in front of Sir William. Her cheek was
already bruising from the blow. He grabbed her arm and pulled her in front of
him, where she swayed uncertainly. Hugh struggled ineffectually against the
blade and felt it bite deeper into his skin. Sir William brought his mouth down
on Alais’ mouth in a hard, brutal kiss. When his father lifted his head, Hugh
could see blood on her lips.

“We shall see,” said Sir William, quietly. “Take her to
my bedchamber and lock her in,” he ordered the steward. “I will take you to
wife this night and if I find that you are not a virgin you will not see the
sun rise.”

Hugh began to struggle against the man holding him.

“You cannot serve her if you are dead,” hissed Edmund
from behind him. In his anger and despair Hugh almost ignored the wisdom of his
words.

The steward took the stumbling Alais up the stairs
accompanied by two armed men. Still she did not turn back to look at Hugh.

“Now for my heir.” Having watched Alais mount the steps,
Sir William turned his attention back to his son. “You will leave this house.
If you attempt to return, my men will kill you.”

“There was nothing between us,” shouted Hugh. “Edmund
was with us all the time.”

“You fool. Do you think I would take the word of a
peasant who would lie for you without question? Get out of here.”

Hugh and Edmund were manhandled out of the hall and into
the yard. “This is Lady Alais’ horse,” said Hugh as Full Moon was brought to
him.

“She has no need of a horse,” said the man who still
held his sword to Hugh’s throat. They were accompanied by five heavily armed
men until they reached Petersfield, then Hugh and Edmund were alone.

Hugh immediately turned Full Moon around and made to
return to Liss.

“Are you mad?” Edmund caught hold of the reigns and
pulled the horse to a halt.

“You know what he will do to Alais?”

Edmund sighed. “I do not mean, do not go back. I mean at
least let them get back before we leave, so that we do not run into them. That
way we might make it there alive. They will be expecting us to go back.”

“We will be too late.”

“We will be far too late if we are dead.”

“You are coming with me?”

Edmund snorted as if the question did not merit an
answer. “You have a plan?”

“No.”

“Then why are we going back?”

Hugh paused. Should he tell Edmund? “I am going to kill
my father.”

“You will be hanged...and you will still need a plan.”
Normally, Hugh was grateful for Edmund’s dogged insistence on making him plan
before he acted, but all he could see was Alais’ abused body dead and decaying
before he arrived to help her.

“But Alais will be safe.” This was all that was
important, even Edmund must see that.

“Lady Alais might think it a high price to pay for her
safety,” Edmund said carefully.

“You would rather I let him rape her and kill her?”

“No, but your death will distress her greatly.”

“Then she will be distressed, but she will be alive.”

Alais thought she had been afraid when she had fled from
St Michael’s, but, she discovered, that had not been real fear. Now she knew
fear for her life and she knew pain. Still dizzy from Sir William’s blow, she
could feel her lip swelling and taste the blood in her mouth. Her one
consolation was that Hugh was safe. What she feared more than her own death was
that he would return. Despite what everyone had told her, she had not quite
believed all the tales about Sir William. She had assumed that she could survive
being married to him by giving way to him. This had been a mistake. Sir William
was capable of being what she had been told he was. Now she had the proof, she
felt that she had been stupid not to go with Hugh. He had known what his father
would do and had tried to persuade her to follow another path. She had let him
go and he did not know that she loved him. And now her only hope could be that
he would not come back.

Alais wasted some time trying to find a way out of the
bedchamber, but quickly discovered that she was too large to squeeze through
the tiny window and that the door was the only way of leaving the room. The
door was locked and she was certain that a guard stood on the other side. She
was condemned to wait in the room until Sir William came and killed her. She
did not see how she could survive the night. The marriage would be consummated;
Sir William would have whatever it was that he wanted and then he would kill
her. It would not matter that she was a virgin. Surplus to requirements, there
would no reason for her to remain alive.

She was equally convinced that Hugh would try to rescue
her, but against a hall of armed men, she considered his chances of helping her
slim. There seemed to be little that she could do until someone unlocked the
door. At least she could do something about the pain in her face. She reached
into her pouch for the ointment that would seal the wound on her lip. As she
took the small pot from her pouch her hand brushed against her dagger. Sir
William had not taken her seriously as an opponent and that would be his
undoing. She had hoped it would not come to this, but Uncle Giles had taught
her to protect her life and her virtue and she would do so, even if it meant
her husband’s death. Words had sufficed to restrain Hugh, but his father would
require a more violent course of action. Sir William had not even bothered to
relieve her of the dagger that was in plain sight, let alone search her for the
one that was hidden. She still had the hidden dagger that she always kept under
her clothes. There would, of course, be no hope for her once she had killed Sir
William, but she had always known that it must be the last resort. There was a
chance that she could escape and find Hugh once she had killed his father, but
she doubted it. It was far more likely that she would be discovered and hanged.
If it were not for Hugh, she did not think she would mind, apart from the
injustice. In the eyes of everyone else she would be a murderer; in her own
eyes killing Sir William would only be self-defence.

Alais wondered if she was capable of killing a man. She
had practised with the dagger and knew that she was capable physically. Sir
William was a trained soldier and he was much bigger than her, but he would not
be expecting her to defend herself. She knew exactly where to strike him to
kill him immediately. No, that part would be easy, well, fairly easy. What
worried her was whether she could take a life, even the life of someone as
wicked as Sir William.

Some considerable time had passed before she heard the
key turn in the lock. She stood up from the chair where she had been sitting,
half dozing, half alert. Making sure that her hands were in plain sight and
away from her dagger she moved to the bed, which she thought would be her best position
in the room. A man stepped into the room and she gasped. She had been expecting
Sir William, but the man who now presented himself to her was Stephen. He
smiled at her and she realised that somehow she had suddenly become part of his
plot against his father.

“Well, stepmother,” he said, “how timely has been your
arrival. I assumed that Hugh still lived and that you were with him, so I could
still give him the blame for my father’s death. But now he has shown his desire
for you in front of the whole hall. Now my father will be dead and the world
will assume it was my brother, consumed by jealousy. My father swore to kill
you in front of witnesses. In the morning, everyone will know that he found you
not to be a virgin and that Hugh killed him out of revenge.”

“Do not be stupid.” She kept her eye on the bloody
dagger in his hand. He must have killed her guard. “The hall is full of armed
men. No one will believe that Hugh got past them to kill his father.”

“That would be true, if Hugh were alone,” smiled
Stephen, innocently, “but he will be accompanied by the mercenaries he hired to
kill my father.”

Now Alais knew despair. If Hugh came for her he would be
killed, if he did not come for her he would be hanged for his father’s murder.
Either way they would both die.

“Do you intend to kill me now?” she asked and hated
herself for the weakness in her voice.

Stephen’s expression grew grim. “I am afraid, my lady,
that you can serve my immediate purpose better alive. My plan has had to change”

Suddenly he was behind her and the knife was at her
throat. His action brought her back to her senses. While she lived there was
still hope, both for her and for Hugh. Hugh had taken on a French invasion
force and won. Like his father, Stephen did not seem to expect resistance from
a woman. Her arms were free and she could reach her dagger when the time was
right. Stephen dragged her along the passage and to the top of the stairs.

Alais heard the fighting before she saw it, the clash of
blade on blade, the cries of wounded men and voices encouraging the survivors
on. How many men were fighting, she wondered. Sir William was rallying his men
at one end of the room. What she finally saw was chaos. There seemed no order
to the way the men moved across the room. It was almost impossible to tell
friend from enemy. The blood was the next thing that struck her. The hall
seemed to be full of blood slowly soaking into the dirty rushes on the floor.
Finally the smell hit her and she gagged, almost catching her neck on Stephen’s
knife.